There have been many technological advances that have improved flight safety, including instrumentation facilitating flight without reference to the ground, radio communication, Ground Proximity Warning Systems (GPWS), weather radar, Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), Flight Management Systems (FMS), and so forth. Aircraft information technology generally provides the pilot more information with which to achieve better situational awareness.

Unfortunately, each new technology intended to assist the pilot engenders additional complexity and increases pilot/computer interactions. The more information sources there are in the cockpit, the more they must be visually scanned and their results integrated into the pilots’ situational awareness. In short, today’s pilot has become more of a “systems operator” and frequently spends more time manipulating his flight management system than he does actually manipulating the aircraft controls and looking out the window.

Benefits of a Voice Activated Cockpit

Data entry is a particular problem in a fast-moving vehicle like an aircraft. Keypads and keyboards common, are relatively easy to use, and are familiar to the generation that has grown up in the computer age. However, any type of keyboard is susceptible to input error and the keyboards and keypads typically found in an aircraft cockpit are smaller and more compressed than the full size keyboard found on an office desktop. Typing long strings of alphanumerics, especially during stressful and/or turbulent conditions, can easily lead to the entry of incorrect data which can go unidentified.

A Voice-Activated Cockpit (VAC) can provide direct access to most system functions, even as the pilot maintains hands-on control of the aircraft. By “cutting out the middlemen” of button pushes and interpreting visual representations, the following safety and efficiency benefits now become possible:

Direct Aircraft Systems Queries – Rather than step through menus to query specific aircraft systems or
scan a specific instrument, a pilot could simply ask the aircraft what he wants to know.
Data Entry for FMS, Autopilot, Radio Frequencies – Updating the flight profile in flight now becomes
easier and safer, as there is far less likelihood of speaking the wrong lat/long or radio frequency than
there is in inputting the incorrect data.
Correlation of Unfamiliar Local Data – ATC might issue a clearance to the spoken name Orlando,
but the chart symbol (electronic and paper) may only show the seemingly-unrelated abbreviation “MCO”.
With a VAC, the pilot need only repeat the name of the waypoint and its underlying database will correlate
the name with the chart symbol.
Glass Cockpit Configuration – Today’s glass cockpits offer almost limitless configurations. A well-designed
VAC would allow each pilot to configure the cockpit quickly to his or her preference by simply announcing
himself when he took the left seat.
Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) Interaction – Much like the direct aircraft system query, the pilot could
simply ask the EFB to “Display the chart for NDB to ILS runway 27 Left at Orlando International”.

For further benefits of the VAC please download the following whitepaper:

Voice Activated Cockpit Whitepaper